Runescape Game Play

I am often asked what is the cheapest way to train a certain skill, this is not as straight forward as it sounds, for example you may think that big bones are cheaper to get 99 prayer because they are cheaper than dragon bones, willows are cheaper to train fire making than maples, yews or magic logs or cooking trout is cheaper than cooking lobsters or sharks, this may well be the truth but there is a lot to take into consideration before you decide the cheapest route.

You need to work out what the most expensive commodity in Runescape is, this is not as straight forward as it might seem, if you have low level stats then it is generally the best thing that you can make or collect, if you have medium to high level stats the the most expensive commodity is often time.

Let me explain, these examples are made up numbers used to demonstrate my reasoning but they are not far off being correct at current prices.
Willows cost 22gp and maples cost 40gp you need 130k willows to get to 99 and 90k maples to get 99 firemaking, now you may think it is cheaper to use willows because 130k Willows cost 2.86m to 99 FM, maples cost 3.6m to get to 99, so by burning willows you are saving almost 1m.
Look at it another way, you need to burn an extra 40k willows to get to 99 fm, how long will it take to burn 40k willows? its a long time, how many nats can you make in that time? how many yew logs can you chop in that time? how many monkfish can you catch in that time? its going to be a fair few, if you spend the time that you would be burning those extra willows doing a good money making skill you can easily make more than the 1m that you save by burning willows, the cheapest apparent method is not necessary the cheapest way to train, in this scenario its cheaper to burn the more expensive log because it gives you more time to train money making skills.

Its the same with bones for prayer, fish when cooking and many other skills, you need to way up the costs per xp and quantity of items that the different training methods need, there is also the enjoyment factor to count in, if you like burning logs then willows would be fine for you, you may lose more money but its a lot easier if you enjoy it.

Unfortunately I can not say what is good for who, every player is different and stats for other skills pay an important part in your training method, all I am saying is consider the time taken in your cost to train calculations.

When I started playing Runescape I trained mining and wood cutting a lot, the reason could have been because I kept dying when I was fighting, mining and WC was quite straight forward and leveled quickly, mining was the first skill I got to level 60, as I got more into the game and started to find my way around I realised what a pain mining was and it was neglected somewhat, in fact it remained at around 60 for months, I did not like the idea of hitting a rock or 28 banking and returning and repeating.

You will see on my stats that gathering skills that involve lots of walking are neglected, runecrafting being another one of my main hates.

Since the launch of the Visage the black dragons in Taverly are a no go area. too many low level players taking 20 minutes to kill them making a slayer task there impossible, I then had a brainwave (please note this it rarely happens), I remember doing a quest where I had access to a number of black dragons through the Evil Chicken Shrine, I couldn't remember how to get in there so I looked it up on the Internet and I needed a raw chicken and use it on the shrine, that would send me into the Evil Chickens Lair, I got my range gear and trotted off.

After completing my slayer task I saw the mining symbol so I thought I would take a look and see what was there, there was lots of gold and some iron 2 mith rocks and 8 coal, my brain started to work overtime and had another idea, If I got my goldsmiths gaunts and a pick and nats I could mine the gold smelt it with superheat and drop the gold bar, this would be cheaper than buying gold for 530gp smelting and selling for 200gp if I was lucky, obviously if I bought gold ore I could smelt near a bank make gold jewelry as well for an extra benefit but my crafting is a lot higher than my smithing.

I went to the bank got boots of lightness and spottier cape, anti fire breath shield 1k nats goldsmiths gaunts and a rune pick, the pick was in my inventory and I had a lava staff in my hand, I started to mine the gold ore and superheat and dropped the bar, my brain already in overdrive thought again, why don't I mine the mith ore and the coal superheat and bank the bars when my inventory is full, so I did I mined the mith ore mined the coal and superheated, by the time I had gone around the eight coal rocks the mith had re spawned, I continued like this for a while getting some quick xp and some valuable smithing material.

I did this for a few days and got 2 mining levels, in off peak times the respawn for the mith is too slow so I mined some iron that was next to it and dropped it while I was waiting.

Then the super dooper idea came to my head, some mathematics will be involved in this next paragraph or two, so be warned CSE3 maths here.

Because the mith was taking a long time to respawn on quiet worlds I thought I would use mith I already had and just mine coal then super heat, I did this and I ran out of mith ore so I did the same with my Addy ore, took a full inventory of addy ore minus 6 spaces for coal mined the coal and superheated on the spot, when I ran out of addy ore I went to jetizso (sp) to mine ore but it took so long I gave up.

I then went to GEbay and decided to buy the addy ore and did a bit of maths to see if it was economical.

Addy ore 1200gp
Nats 270gp
Total cost 1470gp

Addy bar 2300gp
Profit if selling almost 1k per bar.
Conclusion I get paid to mine and little running around from bank to guild, what a result.

Instead of selling I smith the addy into the best thing I can make and alch it, I lose the profit I get from mining but get smithing xp, smithing xp is one of the most expensive skills to train and I can train it for free, result number 2.

You can still make a profit using this method with steel and mith but obviously not as much.

I love mining now and only stopped for the new summoning skill.

I was playing the other day and wanted to try something different, I though about a granite helm I got from the haunted mines and the mini quest to get to them, I sold the helm on GE when it first came out for about 200k.

I thought it would be a good way to get some extra cash and do something different at the same time, I got my guthans amd wandered off to try and find the terror dogs, when I first went there the minigame was new and I could follow others, this time I was on my own and took hours getting there, my guthans was well tested as I took a fair amount of damage form the skellies in this multi combat and multi trap area, it is good that the guthans heals easily on the monsters down there so I could just heal when I stopped to look around.

I remember the terror dogs being close to the bank and just a few obstacles to get there, that didn't make it any easier it still took me what seemed like and age to find them but as I got closer it started to look familiar, eventually I found them and I was attacked by multiple dogs in the room, each dog capable of inflicting 15 damage quite regularly.

I hid myself in a corner so only 1 or 2 could attack and my guthans could deal with that even managing to use my whip and dfs for some chioce hits.

Terror dog chewing on my whip

AS they got used to me I went to the centre and attacked the level 110 dogs only, im not sure if the 100's dropped granite helms so I concentrated on the 110's just to be sure.

Just me and the wildlife, miles away from civilisations

It wasn't long before I got my first granite helm, then my next then my next, in all I got 6 helms in about 4 hours of slaughter, I am a 126 so it would probably be quicker than most but they are not hard to kill, I left when I ran out of room and my pots run out.

My inventory when I left the terror dogs. I took 40 nats and 200 fires to alch the cheap drops.

Not a bad few hours so off I trot to GEbay to sell the helms, I wasn't sure of the value but the one I got from last sold quite quickly.

I put them on GE at maximum price, would reduce later if they did not sell.

2 Sold that night and when I logged in this morning this is what I saw.

All helms sold overnight at max price 1.8m, not bad for four hours play.

Considering you can go to abyssal demons and not get a whip in 4 hours getting more value than a whip in 4 hours with the only requirement is 40 slayer, not a bad trip, its nice to have a change, to earn some well good cash is a bonus.

I have had requests from real world gold traders to advertise on this blog.

Save yourself the time, we will never advertise real world trading for Runescape gold on this website, all spam comments are deleted before being published.

This is a fan site why would we advertise something that is damaging Runescape and affecting our gameplay, Jagex are trying to find ways to counteract the damage you are doing regularly, I am 100% behind them in this struggle.

I am aware that it is not your fault that Runescape is changing, it is the fault of the sad muppets who buy it, every million they buy is a nail in the coffin of Runescape, people are effectively paying to bury the game they pay to play, if you want to cheat at a game play monopoly at least you only affect a few playing that.

There have been a number of instances where readers have asked for my Runescape account.

To the people who ask for my account ask yourself this question, why would I abide by all the rules on Runescape, train my character hard, post tips guides and progress reports on this blog if I was going to give it away to a noob who is too lazy to train their own character?

Trading accounts is against the rules, if I gave you my account that would be breaking the rules and I would report myself for account trading.

Continual requests for my account will result in an IP ban from visiting this web site, this website is designed to help you train your character and get your xp as fun and as quickly as possible, taking someone elses account may be quick but not as much fun, DON'T DO IT.